Fresh Vacancies at the Breakthrough Action-Nigeria

Reports To: Project Director

Job Description

• The Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP) was founded on the belief that social and behavior change communication (SBCC) is key to solving the world’s most pressing health problems.
• Our mission is to inspire and empower people around the world to make healthy choices for themselves and their families.
• CCP will be implementing the USAID Breakthrough-ACTION-Nigeria project that will use state-of-the-art, evidence-based tools to encourage people in developing countries to adopt healthy behaviours. Much of the work will harness the power of communication – from mass media campaigns to TV and radio dramas to simple posters in a health clinic – to inspire long-lasting change.
• The project will also take advantage of other behavioural science approaches such as behavioural economics and human-centred design to improve programs.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• The Capacity Strengthening and Coordination Advisor will lead key activities with particular attention to strengthening public sector systems for effective coordination of SBC at the national and sub-national levels, strengthening institutional capacity among key Nigerian stakeholders.
• S/he will possess experience and demonstrated success in strengthening public sector capacity for SBC.
• S/he will possess a strong understanding of best practices in individual and institutional capacity strengthening for SBC, and will have personal experience in applying key approaches.
• S/he will represent Breakthrough-Action/Nigeria to USAID and the GoN at national and subnational levels, and will cultivate open and collaborative management relationships with the management team at USAID/Nigeria, and other Mission-funded activities.
• S/he will work with other senior staff to monitor activities and proactively engage, coordinate and convene public and private actors to advance the practice of SBC in Nigeria.

Requirements
The proposed Capacity Strengthening and Coordination Advisor must meet or exceed all of the following specific requirements:

• A senior technical expert with an advanced degree in public health, communication, or marketing
• At least 10 years of experience working in international health, including experience in a technical leadership capacity on large activities focused primarily on social and behavior change.
• Must be fluent in written and spoken English and at least one local Nigerian language.
• Experience working across Nigerian government bodies.

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Location: Abuja with frequent travel to project states
Reports to: SBC Advisor

Summary

• The Breakthrough Action Nigeria (BA-Nigeria) Gender Advisor serves as the lead advisor in identifying gender-based constraints facing men/women in the targeted communities and steering program activities to directly address these issues.
• S/he will be expected to engage with all areas of program implementation to ensure gender mainstreaming practices are being utilized.

Position’s Roles & Interactions

• This position will interact heavily with BA senior technical staff, partners and relevant internal and external stakeholders
• The position will have lead responsibility for all gender related outputs of Breakthrough ACTION/Nigeria.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities
In addition to the general duties described above, specific duties and responsibilities include the following:

• Provide technical assistance to partners in assessing the strength of their approach to gender mainstreaming across the program cycle.
• Compile, analyze and interpret gender issues and statistical data and carry out thorough research and preparation of top quality analysis and reports (including gender assessment & monitoring reports).
• Develop and deepen innovative approaches to gender integration, gender equality, and inclusive development, and participate actively in relevant professional (formal and informal) communities.
• Provide advice on appropriate gender sensitive indicators in the performance measurement framework and support colleagues in the monitoring and reporting of project results/outputs and objectives against agreed indicators.
• Identify gender-based constraints to access to and  control over information, inputs and resources in targeted areas, and in strategizing solutions to be implemented through project activities;
• Advise partner NGO staff and partners on ways to promote gender equality through project interventions, and advise on how to tailor each intervention;
• Champion male focused gender programming innovations
• Support in the M&E collection and interpretation for gender specific indicators;
• Serve as the project resource person for all gender-based questions and engage with stakeholders on gender issues being addressed by the project;
• Monitor, analyze and be up-to-date with gender related topics at national and international level;
• Distil and document lessons for policy dialogue, public advocacy and future programming and organize dissemination of learning within teams and partners.
• Manage gender specific initiatives in accordance with agreed deliverables e.g. monitor project expenditure against agreed budget lines and timeframes and ensure the financial resources are effectively used. Exercise quality assurance oversight and institute early warning systems to detect weaknesses in project implementation and advise management on corrective interventions.
• Represent the project management in relevant partner meetings
• Other duties as identified and assigned

Minimum Qualifications & Competencies

• Minimum of a Master's in Gender Studies, Women Studies, International Development, Development Studies or related field;
• Minimum of 5 years’ experience with a USAID funded Project/ International organisation;
• At least 5 years experience managing a gender portfolio;
• Experience working in a health-related donor funded project in Nigeria;
• Substantial experience in designing, monitoring and evaluation of gender projects;
• High level of interpersonal skills and cultural sensitivity to effectively interact with, local communities, partner staff, and policy makers;
• An influential communicator, with excellent written and verbal skills in both English and Hausa languages.